You Belong With Me
by Kiwiflea
Summary: Julie Taylor observes Tim Riggins...Song fic that takes place in my imaginary season 4! No spoilers!
1. Part 1

You Belong with Me

_You're on the phone with your girlfriend, She's upset  
She's going off about something that you said  
She doesn't get your humour like I do_

He was on the phone with her. Lyla. Julie Taylor stood in the parking lot, waiting for her dad to come out of the locker room, watching Tim Riggins argue on his cell phone. Loudly. She knew it was Lyla.

Tim was the new assistant coach at East Dillon. Her dad had brought him in after getting sacked for J.D. McCoy's quarterback coach. She saw as Tim sunk back against the wall, looking simply exhausted over his on-and-off lover. She felt for him. Even in his new role, Julie could see Tim wanted to keep up tough guy appearances.

_I'm in the room, it's a typical Tuesday night  
I'm listening to the kind of music she doesn't like  
And she'll never know your story like I do_

Julie sat at her desk, trying to finish her calculus homework, as her Dad and Tim watched tape in the living room. She could just barely see them, if she leaned back in her chair just right. Both men had yellow legal pads perched on their knees. Tim was chewing on the end of his pen.

It made Julie think back to the short time Tim had lived with the Taylors. What a different side of the star fullback she had come to know. He put up that tough exterior to his fellow players, the rally girls, and even Billy, but she got to see Tim play peek-a-boo with Gracie. And have manly talks with Coach over the grill. And stand up for her any time she needed his help. Julie knew he didn't show that side of him to Lyla.

_But she wears short skirts, I wear t-shirts  
She's cheer captain and I'm on the bleachers  
Dreaming bout the day when you'll wake up and find  
That what you're lookin for has been here the whole time  
If you could see that I'm the one who understands you  
Been here all along so why can't you see?  
You belong with me  
You belong with me_

Standing with her mom on the bleachers for homecoming was something Julie had been looking forward to all month. The Panther Boosters normally saw Tami's attendance at a rival football game as a large conflict of interest. Or more often than not, mutiny. But the two teams were playing each other for East Dillon's homecoming game, and Julie was thrilled to be standing next to her mom and Gracie.

Of course she was more excited about what was happening down on the field, or specifically _who_ was down there. Dressed in a warmup jacket, with headset half off his head, Tim was yelling at his offensive line. Waving his arms towards the end zone – which earlier they seemed to forget which one was theirs – he seems to be trying to psych them up. He sent his kids off onto the field and turns around, smiling up at the bleachers. At…Lyla. Oh.

Julie hopes, both for a win for the team, and for a time when Tim sees her for something besides Coach's daughter.

* * *

**Obviously, I do not own FNL's wonderful characters (if only this were true…), nor do I own Taylor Swift's **_**You Belong With Me**_**.**

**What do you think? I only made it about halfway through the song before I got stuck for ideas, so if this sets any plot tidbits in your head for the rest of the song, please let me know! I don't feel this story is done, and really want inspiration to finish it!**

**AND I haven't seen any of season 4 yet, so if you are lucky enough (read: not as ridiculously cheap as I am), please don't spoil it for me!**


	2. Part 2

_Walkin' the streets with you in your worn out jeans  
I can't help thinking this is how it ought to be  
Laughing on the park bench thinkin' to myself  
Hey isn't this easy?_

Tim Riggins was coaching the worst team in football history. In the third quarter alone, the team's quarterback, Mike Day, threw for 4 interceptions and was sacked twice. He smiled despite the atrocity of his team, as some of his favorite people were attending the game.

Sitting third row, just left of midfield was Lyla Garrity, his high school…affair? He wasn't sure what to call Lyla, but he sure was not thrilled that she was there. They were two people who did not belong together, and her leaving for Vanderbilt had only cemented in Tim's mind that he wasn't good enough for Buddy Garrity's daughter. (He wouldn't admit it, even drunk, or upon threat of violence, but he was happy to see Buddy in the stands at East Dillon games.)

Billy was sitting next to Buddy, and next to Billy was a very pregnant Mindy Colette-Riggins. Billy grumbled endlessly about having to buy new clothes, but remained happy to be supporting Tim, wearing that God-awful pee-wee's button. Billy'd also taken to coaching the Baby Riggins – Billy determined it was a boy, Mindy a girl – in his sister-in-law's belly.

He was happy to see all three of them, but they weren't the most important people in the stands to him. No, Tim looked up at the second row, midfield, and saw little Julie Taylor and Mrs. Coach. Mrs. Coach who was always more of a mom to him than his own, and Julie. In his mind he has trouble telling the difference between the little Julie Taylor, who used to shadow her daddy on the pee-wee field, and the almost-grown Julie Taylor, who showed support for East Dillon in a too-big red sweatshirt and red face paint swiped across her freckled cheeks. But then Tim saw the nearly destroyed pair of jeans that made her legs look a mile long. He shook his head to rid it of the images that those jeans brought up in him, and notices a troubled look on her face. He wishes the crowd away – the game, and Lyla, and Coach - so he could find out what's wrong.__

And you've got a smile that could light up this whole town  
I havent seen it in awhile, since she brought you down  
You say you find I know you better than that  
Hey, Whatcha doing with a girl like that?

Tim was used to being called a fuck-up. The whole town of Dillon knows it, warns its girls to stay away from him – not that most of the Rally Girls at Dillon had listened, a fact he remembered fondly – but…_  
_For most of his life, he has been a fuck-up, with the exception of the football field. And, he thinks, with Julie. He's been there when Jules has needed him, and Tim was proud of that.

Maybe it's that she seems to have really bad luck. First with Seven, and that asshole Swedish kid, and getting stuck in the tornado. His thoughts paused as he slowed his pickup to find a very cold-looking Julie walking along the side of the road. She looked hesitantly at the truck, but soon realized it's him, breaking out into a relieved smile. A smile that warms him in places he didn't know existed.

She climbed in the truck, removing his jacket from the seat, and wrapping it around her shoulders. Tim focused back on the road. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Julie close her own and shake from the cold. Probably trying to forget the memory of how she ended up walking alone down Route 71. He couldn't find the words – he was never good at saying things like that – but he hoped she knew that he would always be there for her.

_  
She wears high heels, I wear sneakers  
She's cheer captain and I'm on the bleachers  
Dreaming bout the day when you'll wake up and find  
That what you're looking for has been here the whole time_

_If you could see that I'm the one who understands you  
Been here all along so why can't you see?  
You belong with me_

Tim slowed the truck to a stop in front of the Taylor's house. Julie was asleep, her head resting on Tim's shoulder. Her feet were curled up on the seat underneath her, a beat up pair of New Balance barely visible. Tim loved this about her, how casual she was. The tattered jeans, the sweatshirt that he had left behind at the Taylor's when he and Coach were watching tape. With Lyla, with Tyra, with all of the Rally girls, he had lots of fun, when they weren't fighting, but they all put up this "perfect" image for Tim. Tim thought Julie was naturally beautiful.

He gently picked her up from the bench seat, trying not to disturb her. Frozen when she shifted in his arms, Tim exhaled as she seemed to go back to sleep. The house was peaceful, but he knew Coach was waiting up in bed until he heard his little girl get back home. Tim opened the front door – the Taylor's front door was always unlocked – and slipped inside, accidentally tripping over the bag of recycling in the hallway. Great.

Coach stuck his head out his door at the noise, assuming it'd be Julie. Not his former fullback, his little girl in the man's arms. (It was a symptom of the town's low expectations, but Tim couldn't believe that – Coach and him had been talking the other day during practice, when Coach looked over at him and said, "Y'know, you've grown-up to be a good man, Tim.") Coach didn't look angry, but concerned, and looked pointedly at Tim. Tim shook his head – No, Julie wasn't drunk. Relief filled Coach's face and he nodded once before closing the door to his room.

Soon inside Julie's room, he made sure her shoes were off before tucking her into bed. Tim longed to lay down next to Julie Taylor, to hold her close, to be there when she woke up. It was a funny thought, since he slept with lots of girls, but he had never wanted to just _sleep_ with one. Not even with Tyra, who he was with the longest. The thought startled him. He wanted Julie to just be with him.

* * *

**More of the song from Tim's perspective, as suggested by Anamia 1. I still don't own the characters, and this is still set in my imaginary season 4. I'm definitely not finished (the last part with be from Julie's POV again, I think), but please let me know what you thought!**


End file.
